The invention relates to a multiport assembly for an electrical circuit board. More particularly, the invention relates to a multiport assembly including an enclosure assembly for a printed circuit board having two substantially identical housing covers, and in which the electrical circuit board floats within the enclosure assembly. An electrical circuit board is placed in a first housing cover, with brass shell input and output connections, coupled to the electrical circuit board, resting on recesses in the first housing cover. A second housing cover is rotated 180 degrees around its longitudinal axis to mate with the first housing cover, and enclosing the electrical circuit board within the first and second housing covers. The brass shell connections support the electrical circuit board in a position spaced from the enclosure assembly. Electrical devices may then be connected to the electrical circuit board through the brass shell input and output connections.
Enclosure assemblies are widely used to provide protective housings for electrical circuit boards. A multiport assembly includes an enclosure assembly and an electrical circuit board disposed within the assembly. A multiport assembly is used to provide power to devices, such as proximity sensors and other motion control or sensing devices. For example, in a bottling plant a sensor may be used to detect whether a bottle is missing in a line or if a bottle is not filled to a predetermined level.
Typically, the enclosure assemblies are made of several different parts, thereby requiring tooling of several parts to assemble a complete electrical circuit board enclosure assembly. Tooling costs are considerable due to the large number of unique parts that must be manufactured for each enclosure assembly. Additionally, the large number of parts required for each enclosure assembly results in a large inventory of parts.
Some enclosure assemblies are made of parts that are identical. However, those enclosure assemblies do not completely cover the electrical circuit board, or they require additional parts to completely cover the electrical circuit board. The requirement of additional parts to completely enclose the electrical circuit board increases the necessary inventory requirement.
Typically, multiport assemblies contain a single electrical circuit board having a xe2x80x9crat""s nestxe2x80x9d wiring scheme. Each individual wire goes directly from the electrical circuit board to an input/output insulator that resides in a brass shell connected to the electrical circuit board. The xe2x80x9crat""s nestxe2x80x9d wiring takes up extra space due to the numerous wires required to connect the electrical circuit board to each of the insulators and the chaotic nature of the wiring scheme. Moreover, the extra wires and the confusing wiring scheme can lead to miswiring of the electrical circuit board and a greater difficulty in assembling the multiport assembly. Additionally, use of a single circuit board allows for a large tolerance variation, which may cause difficulty in assembling the multiport assembly.
Examples of existing electrical circuit board enclosure assemblies are disclosed in the following disclosures: U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,362 to Flamm et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,613 to Palmer.
Thus, there is a continuing need to provide improved multiport assemblies for electrical circuit boards.
Accordingly, it is a primary object to provide a multiport assembly having an electrical circuit board that floats within an enclosure assembly, thereby reducing the tolerance variation and providing a multiport assembly that is easy to assemble.
Another object of the invention is to provide a multiport assembly in which the enclosure assembly has substantially identical halves, thereby reducing tooling costs and inventory.
Another object of the invention is to provide a multiport assembly in which the electrical circuit board has a minimal amount of wires, thereby preventing miswiring and allowing for easy assembly.
The foregoing objects are basically attained by providing a multiport assembly that has a first housing cover having a first plurality of recesses; a second housing cover having a second plurality of recesses, the second housing cover mating with the first housing cover, thereby creating an enclosure assembly, the enclosure assembly having a plurality of holes formed by the alignment of the first plurality of recesses with the second plurality of recesses; an electrical circuit board disposed within the enclosure assembly, the board having first and second ends and first and second sides; and a plurality of shells connected to the electrical circuit board, each shell extending through one of the plurality of holes in the enclosure assembly and supporting the electrical circuit board in a position spaced from the enclosure assembly.
Other objects, advantages and salient features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses preferred embodiments of the invention.